My Grief Journey

Provides information, advice, and activities to help young people deal with the death of someone they love.

This spiritual companion for mourners affirms their need to mourn and invites them to journey through their very unique and personal grief. Detailed are the six needs that all mourners must yield to and eventually embrace if they are to go on to find continued meaning in life and living, including the need to remember the deceased loved one and the need for support from others. Short explanations of each mourning need are followed by brief, spiritual passages that, when read slowly and reflectively, help mourners work through their unique thoughts and feelings. Also included in this revised edition are journaling sections for mourners to write out their personal responses to each of the six needs. This replaces 1879651114.

Filled with expressive sentiments and beautifully simple illustrations from the personal grief journal of award winning artist/author Joanne Fink, this special edition of When You Lose Someone You Love offers a healing connection with all who are dealing with one of life’s most challenging times. Readers will understand that they are not alone, that there will be days when you feel overwhelmed, nights when you can’t sleep, and times when waves of sadness wash over you unexpectedly. Affirming and cathartic, this book will help bring healing without sugarcoating the challenges of losing a loved one. When You Lose Someone You Love is an incredible gift of comfort for anyone who endures the journey of losing a spouse, a family member or close friend. When You Lose Someone You Love features... • Life-affirming insights from the personal grief journal of an award-winning artist. • Expressive sentiments take readers through the many emotions of loss. • Beautifully illustrations on every page. • A 116 page book that offers the “look and feel” of a very personal greeting card.

In this “volume of rare sensitivity, penetrating understanding, and profound insights” (Rabbi Earl A. Grollman, author of Living When a Loved One Has Died), Dr. Kenneth Doka explores a new, compassionate way to grieve, explaining that grief is not an illness to get over but an individual and ongoing journey. There is no “one-size-fits-all” way to cope with loss. The vital bonds that we form with those we love in life continue long after death—in very different ways. Grief Is a Journey is the first book to overturn prevailing, often judgmental, ideas about grief and replace them with a hopeful, inclusive, personalized, and research-backed approach. New science and studies behind Dr. Doka’s teaching upend the dominant but incorrect view that grief proceeds by stages. Dr. Doka helps us realize that our experiences following a death are far more individual and much less predictable than the conventional “five stages” model would have us believe. Common patterns of experiencing and expressing grief still prevail, yet many other life changes accompany a primary loss. For example, the deaths of parents, even for adults, modify family patterns, change relationships, and alter old family rituals. Unique to this book, Dr. Doka also explains how to cope with disenfranchised grief—the types of loss that are not so readily recognized or supported by society. These include the death of ex-spouses, as well as non-fatal losses such as divorce, the end of a friendship, job loss, or infertility. In addition, Dr. Doka considers losses that might be stigmatized, including death by suicide or from disease or self-destructive behaviors such as smoking or alcoholism. And finally, Dr. Doka reminds us that, however painful, grief provides opportunities for growth.

Almost 200,000 couples in America each year suffer through the tragedy of miscarriage. And that statistic only tells us about first trimester miscarriages. The emotional pain of longer-term miscarriages, and the untold numbers of mothers and fathers who keep silent about their hurt, make this form of child loss especially cruel.But in Silent Grief, author Clara Hinton brings a clear message of hope through the cold mourning. Writing of her own grief, and interviewing scores of women and men, she offers not pat answers, but instead show us this: You are not alone.

Do you know a child who has faced a deep loss, such as the death of a parent, sibling or grandparent? Are you looking for a way to help them sort out their thoughts and emotions? My Grief Journey: Coloring Book and Journal for Kids is for any age (including adult "kids") who are learning how to live after the death of someone dearly loved and deeply missed. It is different from all the other coloring books out there. Each coloring page has a word surrounded by beautiful artwork which is intentionally hand drawn. Each word has two pages to help the child think about and explore a specific word or emotion (such as helpless, fear, memories, hope, comfort, truth, thankful, etc.) through coloring, drawing and writing. The coloring page has a scroll with a "prompt," to help them get started in thinking how they might feel about something. The prompt can be answered inside the scroll by either writing or drawing. We have also included an extra page for each word to allow more room for drawing or writing. On the page opposite the picture, you will find where award-winning author, Laura Diehl, shares her own thoughts, intertwined with what God has shown her about that word, along with a bible verse. Laura was an international children's minister and trainer for many years. This book is a simplified version of My Grief Journey: Coloring Book and Journal for Grieving Parents, using twenty-nine of the forty-two words (and adding one word not in the adult book). This was done intentionally, so that a parent and child can do many of the pages together if there has been a sibling loss for the child.

Many of us will grieve the death of a friend. Yet, this particular kind of grief is not recognized as often as that experienced when a spouse, child, or parent dies. Grief counselor and speaker Harold Ivan Smith has worked with "friend grief" both professionally and personally. In this short volume, he offers comfort and encouragement to those who have lost a friend by validating their grief, urging them to give their grief a voice, and remembering their friend.

Explaining the important difference between grief and mourning, this book explores every mourner's need to acknowledge death and embrace the pain of loss. Also explored are the many factors that make each person's grief unique and the many normal thoughts and feelings mourners might have. Questions of spirituality and religion are addressed as well. The rights of mourners to be compassionate with themselves, to lean on others for help, and to trust in their ability to heal are upheld. Journaling sections encourage mourners to articulate their unique thoughts and feelings.